By Neil McLeman
Martin Jol will rebuild his new Fulham team around Dimitar Berbatov after admitting his Bulgarian forward came to Craven Cottage to play with Moussa Dembele.
Talks to sign the former Manchester United striker had started before Spurs activated the £15m buyout clause in Dembele’s contract.
But Berbatov had witnessed the Belgian’s outstanding display for Fulham at Old Trafford last weekend – and had been impressed by a player Jol called “one of the best players in the Premier League”.
The Fulham boss said: “He [Berbatov] really looked forward to playing with Dembele. The first thing he said to me was: ‘Where’s Dembele going?’ and I had to say: ‘He’s going to Spurs’. He was disappointed. He was told that before his medical, but luckily we managed to keep him in the building!”
Fulham have money in the bank but after Bobby Zamora and Danny Murphy, another creative influence has left Craven Cottage.
Match report: West Ham United 3-0 Fulham
“I felt we’d made a good step forward, but maybe selling Dembele is a step back again,” Jol admitted. “I think we will get it right, but it’s not easy because we don’t have that offensive midfield player who could create some damage. We’ve made money, but the problem is that we’ve not had enough time to spend it.
“We’re going to play through Berbatov. He will be at the end of things in the box. You build teams around good players – and Berbatov is excellent quality.
“He’s a quality player and he showed exactly that when I was at Spurs.”
The Dutchman added: “I don’t think there was any danger he would join Tottenham because he wants to play. They’ve got Adebayor so it’s good for Spurs to have two Number 9s, but he’s too good for the bench.”
